Portuguese rice with lupins, zucchini, carrot, onions, garlic, basil, and piri-piri hot sauce
A whole dish packing strong, yet balanced Lusitanian flavors, backed by the incredible hot chili sauce piri-piri.
Serves: 4 as main dish; 6 or more as a side
Preparation: 15-20 minutes
Cooking: 30 minutes
I’m lucky to live in one of the most multicultural regions of Europe. Go shop here and you’ll hear people speaking French, German, Luxembourguish, Italian, Portuguese, English, Romanian, Polish. You’ll find original products from the corresponding countries, too. I knew little about this region when I first arrived, more than a decade ago now. I remember once asking a staff member in the supermarket how long the special sale of Italian cheeses (I wasn’t vegan back in those days) would last; the person laughed that if they were not selling Italian products, including this large selection of cheeses, the store would go out of business. Same goes for Portuguese products, including rice, green olives, lupins, olive oil, and piri-piri this recipe makes a good (and delicious) use of.
From time to time, I like to cook with flavors from one country. I shop for imported products, from brands of this specific country — here Portugal. The first time I took a picture of these products and shared with colleagues, a Portuguese team mate commented “I predict success”. And he was right! Moreover, as someone who loves (and the word is weak) chili pepper, I was delighted by piri-piri hot sauce.
About piri-piri
Piri-piri (also written peri-peri, piripiri, or pilipili) designates both the chili pepper cultivated in Africa, and the hot sauce made from it. This chili pepper has grown in the wild in Africa for centuries, after coming from Americas. The sauce was produced by Portuguese explorers during the colonial era, in their Southern Africa territories, and is still a staple condiment in Portuguese cuisine. This sauce is very hot, as the chili pepper it uses, malagueta, is stronger than tabasco, and only slightly weaker than habanero. It fits well in other recipes, and can nicely color and power a hummus. The piri-piri sauce has a very distinctive flavor, and it vaguely reminds me of cod — maybe because this fish is also common in Portuguese cuisine.
Ingredients
300 g of white, long rice
280 g of lupins
300 g zucchini (frozen slices in my case)
1 big carrot ~ 200 g
165 g of pitted green olives
2 yellow onions ~ 230 g
4-8 soup spoons of piri-piri chili sauce (taste it before choosing the quantity)
Ground dried garlic ~ 5 g (not the thin, slick powder one; the coarse powder)
Dry basil leaves ~ 4 g
10 soup spoons of olive oil
Preparation
There’s little to prepare for this recipe ahead of cooking. Since the first step of cooking relates to the rice, you can even take care of this before pulling the knife from its drawer. As soon as you reach step 3, you can safely start heating your deep-sided pan (step 2 of Cooking).
Peel the onions, chop into thumb-sized pieces
Peel the carrot, cut into thick slices, then in quarters
If you have a fresh zucchini, wash it thoroughly, then slice it in 0.5 cm wide pieces
Remove the brine from the green olives if they come from a glass jar; you can keep a soup spoon or two (see tip at the bottom of the article)
Cooking
The cooking part of this recipe is not complex, however it will require your regular attention as you’ll add some ingredients, stir, cover, and repeat with another set of ingredients. I used my favorite stainless steel deep-sided pan, however a non-stick one will do — cook in what you’re used to, the heat repartition and power isn’t important.
Cook the rice as instructed on the package, or in your rice cooker; proceed with next steps in parallel
Heat a deep-sided pan to medium flame/power
Add 5 soup spoons of olive oil; wait for the oil to heat
Add chopped onions, and carrot; stir once, then cover for 5 minutes
Add lupins, zucchini slices, and garlic; stir once, cover for 5 minutes
Add green olives, piri-piri, basil ; stir once, cover for 5 minutes
Add cooked rice, 5 soup spoons of olive oil
Heat your cookware to 75% of the maximum flame/power
Stir vigorously for 1 minute, then you’re done
You can serve this right away. Beware it will be hard to resist not eating it all! It’s safer to save a serving or two for later… It supports well being refrigerated, and even frozen. This is a whole dish as the rice, lupins, olives, and vegetables provide, respectively, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and fibers. You can still serve it as a side dish, along with an entrée (melon and porto for example) and a salad. Is it Summer I hear knocking at your door?
Enjoy!
If you’ve tried the recipe, and would like to comment — whether you loved it, or hated it — please do so. I’m welcoming ideas, even if these are non-vegan recipes I’ll have the challenge to “veganize”.
Here’s a tip before you go
Green olives, lupins, gherkins, and others come into jars, soaked in brine. This both preserves and season food. You can save some of it to flavor your dishes, provided you reduce the amount of salt you put in separately. I use brine in my salad dressing instead of salt, for example.
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This rice dish looks divine. Long live the mighty peri-peri! I make a fresh one that are perfect for sandwiches. What a treasure that you live somewhere so multicultural - one of the best parts of that is the food! Last week, I went to the Eastern suburbs - my boyfriend and I go there when I need to stock up on Jewish and Israeli food. Then, a few days ago, we went to Chinatown to pick up some of my favourite foods from Hong Kong. I love Sydney!